The Grave
by Chaouen
Summary: A young woman visits a grave at the Quiet Isle while thinking about the journey that took her there (This is my guess about how Sansa and the Hound will meet again after AFFC. Oneshot Sansa POV)


_**This text is written with all my love and respect for two of my favorites characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, trying to imagine how it'll be when they meet again in the books. Of course, none of them is mine. It was GRR Martin who put them in our lives. I have only borrowed them for a little while.**_

_**Thank you in advance to you reader who are on the other side of the screen, spending your time with me.**_

_**Since English is not my first language, please be kind :) All the reviews telling misspelling and wrong sentences are welcome, and so do critics and any other kind of comments as well.**_

_**** Los que prefiráis leerlo en español lo tenéis también en mi perfil con el título "La Tumba", probablemente con muchos menos errores gramaticales! ****_

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She knelt at the foot of the burial ground she'd been pointed at. It was at the top of a little hill, among another anonymous mounds, one the same as the other, all dark and gloomy and all unidentified.

They had arrived a few hours ago, after overcoming the difficulties of entering the island, just to meet a few disconcerted monks who didn't know how to deal with two women on horseback, one of them huge and armed. One might have recognized Brienne from her last visit, and told the Elder Brother, who tried to accommodate them the best he could and offered them some water and spiced wine. He stared at her constantly, with these eyes of his so curious and quiets at the same time, eyes to which you'd like to tell all your secrets and sorrows. When he asked why someone like her would like to visit the grave, she didn't answer. There are things that must be done, even if you don't know the real reason.

The slowness of the monk's ritual lunch exasperated her. The beef and carrot stew was tasteless and depressing, and even though it warmed her, it didn't fill the hollow on her stomach and the fear she had since Brienne helped her to escape the Valley. She was the one who told her about the Hound and her sister Arya. It seemed impossible to find her yet, although the feeling of knowing she was alive comforted her in some way, but at least she knew for sure where to find him, even if it was too late. Brienne didn't understand her in the beginning and tried to dissuade her, but the Quiet Isle was a place as good any other to go to, and in the end she gave up. She didn't understand herself either, but something impulse her to go there, even if it was wrong. She was more scared than ever but also had the intuition that she was the only person who thought of him after he vanished, and the certitude that no one else apart from her will pay his respects to the grave of the man who once saved her live.

And so there she was, wrapped up in her cloak, knelt in front of a pile of common soil, not knowing what to pray or what to say, only keeping silence looking at the stones, feeling the rising cold wind blowing over the hill.

Now that it was done she felt herself empty, without a purpose or any idea of what to do next. She didn't know any place to go, anyone who could be considered a friend or a protection, unless the tall manly woman who waited for her downhill and that seems had run through half Westeros in order to find her.

She rose, her legs numbness. The wind had tangled up her long hair and blew strongly. She wrapped up tight her cloak and look for the last time to the grave.

_"Little bird"_

The voice, low and hard as a knife scratching a stone, ran through her spine with a shivering of fear and certainty.

_"What are you doing here"_

For the first time in months, Sansa allowed a shadow of a smile flying over her lips before turning. A massive figure cover entirely in a brown rough habit stood a few steps from her, but she had not heard him approach. He stared at her from the darkness of the hood and although she couldn't see his face, she would have recognized that voice and these heavy rough hands anywhere.

_"I was told the Hound was dead, and I've come to see his grave"_

_"Why"_

_"Because I haven't forgotten he saved my life. And because I'm probably the only one who regrets his death."_

The monk moved closer, limping a bit until he reached her.

_"You've grown up, girl"_

She nodded. _"Too much"_

She raised her hand to take off the hood and as she did, her fingers touched softly the hard skin of the scars, stopping for a moment in the movement. She didn't care anymore to look straight at him, nor to his grey eyes, now staring at hers calmer than the last time they met. It was only a face like any other, only this didn't hide any secret, conspiracies or marriages, nor false alliances or promises to set aside the person she really was. He grasped her wrist when her hand was laying aside with the same strength another times he prevented her to fall; almost hurting her, fiercely, with the rudeness and ingenuous of a person who wants something with desperation and doesn't know how to ask for it. The man attracted her towards him, surrounding her with his arms in a warm hug that was impossible to escape. Into the embrace she put her hands and cheek over his chest, and there she could hear his heart clearly, like the beating of a drum calling from afar, slow but firm and sure. Almost without realizing she closed her eyes and let her go very very quietly, relaxed, safe and sound for the very first time in months, maybe in years.

_"Thank you",_ whispered the dreamy girl she once was and also the strong woman in whom she was forced to become to the man now resting his chin on her temple holding her tightly.

_"Little bird"_, he muttered.

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_Hope you'd liked it. This is my very first fic and also the first time I public something in the net. I doubt a lot about publishing it so I'll very happy if at least one of you enjoyed it. All your comments will be a present for me. _

___**Update: If you liked it, you can also read the same story from the Hound POV in my other fic "The vow of silence"**_

_Thank you!_


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